April 13, 2007 — UVI's Research and Technology Park has hired Aramark Higher Education to provide what they call comprehensive project management and support services for the initial phase of construction of its headquarters building on the UVI St. Croix campus.
Aramark will manage: project planning, design development oversight, maintenance planning and operations training, among other aspects of the tech park’s operations. The contract takes effect April 15. Andrew Worob, of the public relations firm G.S. Schwartz, arranged a three-party conference call with the Source, Worob and Denise Kurg, director of facilities and operations for the tech park to talk about the move Friday.
“We selected Aramark following our evaluation of responses to the request for information we published in September, 2006,” said Kurg. “They will commission services for the park, assist the park with its budget, coordinate between the architects and the construction company, assist in the design, help evaluate the plans and ensure that all the appropriate tests and surveys are done. They will also manage the bidding process for us, taking us out of the middle, and review all change orders, to ensure all is running smoothly.”
Asked how the technology park is coming along, Kurg said they hope to break ground soon.
“You should start seeing advertisement in the paper for bids, for architects, designers and engineers very shortly,” said Kurg. “We think construction could start possible by the end of this quarter, most likely within the next two quarters. The community, the Legislature and we would like to see this happen so we are making a special effort.”
From then, Kurg tentatively suggested two years to completion.
“Sometimes there can be material shortages, such as last year’s territorywide problems getting cement, because of where we are. We hope there won’t be any delays,” said Kurg.
Before the interview, Worob said there would be no financial information. During the interview Worob said to direct financial questions, including the cost of the contract with Aramark, total government expenditures todate and anticipated revenue from the technology park, to park executive director David Zumwalt. Afterward, Worob said Zumwaldt was out of the territory and unavailable for comment at present.
The technology park is an economic development initiative begun by the university that officials hope will ultimately benefit the university and the territory by providing jobs and tax revenue. The goal is to provide the infrastructure and setting for internet-based commercial enterprises, which will generate tax and rent revenues and create jobs.
UVI has set aside 10 acres on its St. Croix campus for the park’s buildings and infrastructure. Plans for the technology park began in 2001, and in 2002 the Legislature passed a charter and provided initial funding. The park will be able to handle most e-commerce businesses, but not ones that really use gigantic amounts of very fast bandwidth, such as a stock exchange. For those specialized functions, business need access to the Global Crossing large data trunk cable in Frederiksted. What it will offer to businesses is buildings built with their needs in mind, very substantial tax benefits through the Economic Development Commission (EDC) and access to the resources of the university.
To date, more than $6 million has been appropriated by the Legislature for developing the project. The Public Finance Authority has also set aside another $7 million for construction, which will not begin to disburse until all the designs, plans and permits are in place.
Although in the works for a number of years, the technology park has been delayed several times. In 2005 strict new federal rules governing source income for companies receiving EDC tax benefits cast a shadow over potential investment at the park. Last fall the U.S. Department of Treasury issued a clarification of some of those rules, making it clear that many types of e-commerce could receive EDC benefits at the park.
Aramark Education is a division of the Philadelphia-based Aramark Corporation, specializing in services to colleges, universities and schools. They run food-service operations, facilities management and other institutional services all over the globe. Aramark, the parent company, has approximately 243,000 employees in 20 nations and had $11.6 billion in sales last year.
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